Goomoodleikiog: Naming things is important

It outlines in very specific terms one way of integrating Google Docs, Moodle, Wikis and Blogs. I say very specific because one of the general hallmarks of the 2.0 version of teachers is that we tend to all be pretty good at explaining things in vague terms for others and specific terms for our students. We tend to be able to project a vision to the outside world and not be able to back it up with the specific ways of getting there, the ways that we got there in our own situations.

The videos at this space are concrete (in-progress examples of just how a classroom can run). The pedagogy page is a brilliant explanation of how all of these tools should fit together, and it may be one of the first coherent things I have seen that isn’t just a list of tools.

However the real reason for this post is not to talk about the site itself, but rather the name. Goomoodlewikiog, although a mouthful, is specific in terms of its purpose. It projects exactly what it aims to: a collection of interrelated tools.

I believe that we should always be intentional in naming things that we want to be associated with. We should always frame our conversations in the terms that we want to be speaking about on a daily basis. And although I’m not sure that I’m going to be using Goomoodleikiog on a daily basis from now on, I am glad that someone is.

My question is: what other terms do I need to make more concrete? When is it time to drop Web 2.0 and start talking with language that actually means something?

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Author: Ben and Kara Wilkoff

He is married to his favorite person, and loves his three children quite a little bit (aged 5, 10 and 12). He is passionate about authentic learning, technology with purpose, and creating at least one new thing every day. In short, he teaches, and learns. A lot.
Also, he co-founded WouldYouLikeABanana.com with his wife, Kara.

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Ben, Thank you so much for your kind words. Heidi and I had a lot of fun working on the videos and the site. I think you ask a good question about making terms concrete. We chose our name because it was a mouthful, caught your attention and was made up of what we wanted to say. One of my frustrations is just what you mentioned “We tend to be able to project a vision to the outside world and not be able to back it up with the
specific ways of getting there, the ways that we got there in our own situations.” I think seeing how others got to their final product is part of making things concrete. When I know someone’s process I can look at it and more easily see how I can adapt it to my classroom or my students.

This is great! It’s often hard to find examples of how someone has “put it all together”. Will Richardson also recently posted a great concrete example of a school in Australia using online social learning. I plan on looking at both of these resources more in depth to put something together that will work for my class next year.